Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The outstanding and well-documented Second War C.B.E., Great War ‘Cherisy, 1 September 1918’ D.S.O., ‘Canal du Nord, 27 September 1918’ Second Award Bar, and ‘Hill 70, August 1917’ M.C. group of thirteen awarded to Brigadier J. P. Girvan, 15th Canadian Infantry Battalion, the most decorated officer of the 15th (48th Highlanders of Canada) Infantry Battalion in the Great War

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 2nd type, neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with Second Award Bar, lacking integral top ribbon bar; Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (27071 Pte. J. P. Girvan. 15/Can: Inf:; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. J. P. Girvan.); Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, with overseas clasp, unnamed as issued; War Medal 1939-45, Canadian issue in silver, unnamed as issued; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers’ Decoration, G.V.R., the reverse officially inscribed (Major J. P. Girvan D.S.O. M.C. 48th Highrs. of C.) complete with integral top suspension brooch; Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service Medal, G.V.R. (Major J. P. Girvan D.S.O. M.C. 48th Highrs of C.); France, Third Republic, Croix de Guerre 1914 1916, with bronze Palme, silver awards all dark toned from long-term display, generally good very fine and better (13) £6,000-£8,000

C.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1946: ‘Brigadier J. P. Girvan, D.S.O., M.C., V.D., Canadian Army.’

D.S.O. London Gazette 1 February 1919: Maj. (A./Lt.-Col.) John Pollands Girvan, M.C., 15th Bn., Can. Inf., 1st C. Ont. R.
‘For conspicuous gallantry opposite Cherisy on 1st September, 1918. He commanded his battalion with the greatest skill and ability, pushing resolutely forward in face of extreme machine-gun fire, and after a personal reconnaissance continuing his advance and capturing and consolidating a position some 6,000 yards in front of the jumping-off line. His courage and leadership were admirable.’

D.S.O. Second Award Bar London Gazette 8 March 1919; citation published 4 October 1919: Maj. (A./Lt.-Col.) John Pollands Girvan, M.C., 15th Bn., Can. Inf., 1st C. Ont. R.
‘For marked gallantry and ability in the attack on Canal du Nord on 27th September, 1918. Crossing the canal on light bridges, and the River Agache by planks, under heavy machine-gun and sniping fire, he pushed on. He personally attacked and captured an enemy machine gun, shooting the gunner and turning the gun on the enemy. He went on and assisted in capturing Chapel Corner and the village of Marquion, and then gained his final objectives. His courage and dash were a fine example to his command.’

M.C. London Gazette 18 October 1917; citation published 7 March 1918: Capt. (A./Maj.) John Pollands Girvan, M.C., Canadian Inf.
‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Throughout an attack he led his company with the greatest skill and courage, continually going forward into our own barrage at great personal risk in order to check men who were advancing too fast. He directed his men amidst the fiercest shelling, and it was due to his gallant personal example that hostile counter-attacks were fruitless. His reports were invaluable, and it was largely due to him that the enemy were held back from the captured ground.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 16 March 1916.

French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 1 May 1917.

John ‘Jack’ Pollands Girvan was born born on 28 November 1887, at Kingarth, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. In 1907, he became a clerk in the Civil Service. He was a fine athlete, winning numerous championships as a member of the Argonaut rowing club. He belonged to an active militia when he attested on 14 September 1914, at Valcartier, Quebec. During the Great War, he married Nursing Sister Jean Elizabeth Sword.

Girvan sailed on 3 October 1914, with the first contingent, arriving in England on 16 October 1916. On 4 February 1915, the 15th Battalion battalion paraded in light marching order for ‘Inspection & Review’ by H.M. the Kin, followed by the March Past, at North Larkhill camp.
The following week, they boarded S.S. Mount Temple, at Avonmouth, on 12 February 1915. After a very rough voyage with high seas, they arrived at St Nazaire, in France, on 15 February 1915. Two days later, they arrived at Hazebrouck in Belgium, moving into billets at Caestre the next day and into billets in Armentieres on 23 February 1915.
The 15th Battalion entered the trenches for the first time on 24 February 1915, suffering their first casualty on the night of the 27th. They entered the trenches at Rue Petillon, on 6 March 1915, pulling out three days later.

In April 1915, the Canadians moved to the Ypres area and took part in the battle of Kitchener’s Wood (Second Battle of Ypres). The 15th Battalion held the line against the German chlorine gas attack, but suffered heavy casualties. The battalion was at the apex of the Canadian position on 24 April. The 15th Battalion suffered the heaviest casualties of any Canadian unit, with over 647 casualties, being hit by the heaviest of the gas, and was overrun by the Germans. Girvan’s No. 1 Company, was on the extreme right flank of the Battalion’s three forward companies and was very lucky to have survived.

In the battle of Festubert, on 15 May 1915, the battalion again suffered heavy casualties. Girvan was promoted to be Sergeant, in the field, ‘A’ Company, 15th Battalion, on 11 June 1915. He was appointed to Temporary Commission, and posted to 15th Battalion on 26 September 1915; granted 5 days leave, 17 October 1915; granted 7 days leave, 5 January 1916; to be Captain, 27 April 1916; granted leave of absence from 25 May to 2 June 1916. On 3 June 1916 the Battalion conducted the first Canadian counter-attack of the war against Observatory Ridge, in opening stages of the battle of Mount Sorrel, again suffering heavy casualties.

Now a Major commanding No. 3 Company, he was wounded during the battle of Flers–Courcelette on 24 September 1916, by a bullet wound which penetrated his right chest at the sternum, and travelled down and lodged in abdominal muscle. He was admitted to 2nd Red Cross Hospital, Rouen, on 27 September 1916, and to Yorkhill War Hospital, Glasgow, on 1 October 1916. He was discharged on 18 October 1916, but was declared unfit for service for three months and granted leave to Canada, 21 October 1916 to 21 January 1917.

Girvan returned to England in late March of 1917, and was appointed Acting Major on 28 April 1917. Then, awarded the Croix du Guerre, on 1 May 1917. Here he spent several months in Bramshott Camp, Hampshire, where his future wife Jean Sword was undergoing training at the camp hospital, and they undoubtedly spent some time together. Girvan returned back to France where, on 30 July 1917, he was indemnified for loss of kit.

He was in command of No. 1 Company leading the forward assault of the 15th Battalion during the battle of Hill 70, and was awarded the Military Cross for this action in which the 15th Battalion assaulted and captured Puits 14 and Bois Hugo as part of the Canadian Corps assault on Hill 70 near Lens, France. The battalion was in the first wave of the assault on the Corps’ exposed and vital left flank. Having secured all their objectives on the morning of 15 August 1917, the battalion defended its position for a day and half against numerous German counter attacks until it was relieved and withdrawn from the line.

Girvan was struck off the strength of the 15th Battalion to attend a Command Officers Course at Aldershot on 27 June 1918 for 8 weeks, and during this time married Nursing Sister Jean Sword. Girvan, now second in command of the 48th Highlanders of Canada, proceeded overseas to the 15th Battalion, from Witley, on 20 August 1918.

For the third time, he landed in France, on 23 August 1918, and rejoined his unit on 26 August. With the Commanding Officer Lieutenant-Colonel C. E. Bent severely wounded, Girvan took command as the Acting Commanding Officer. Upon the C.O.’s return, several times Girvan acted as C.O. while the commander was away. On 30 August 1918, he narrowly escaped death when the Battalion H.Q. dugout took a direct hit from a German artillery shell.

Girvan commanded the 15th Battalion in the assault on The Crow’s Nest at Hendecourt-les-Cagnicourt on 1 September 1918, in the opening stages of the battle of the Drocourt-Queant Line. The 15th Battalion was assigned the task of securing The Crow’s Nest and on the morning of 1 September 1918, the unit assaulted and quickly captured it and the adjacent Chateau Wood. As at Hill 70, the battalion successfully defended the position against several German counterattacks thereby ‘opening the door’ for the main attack on the D-Q Line in which it also participated. Girvan was awarded an immediate D.S.O. for this action.

Girvan commanded the Battalion during the attack on the Canal du Nord on 27 September 1918. In the north, above Ecluse No 3 at Sains lès Marquion, the canal had been finished and it was filled with water. From there, to the south, as far as Inchy the foundations were only half completed .The 1st Canadian Division assaulted across the canal at Sains lès Marquion on the 27 September 1918. The 15th Battalion began its advance towards the canal at 0845 hours. German machine-gun fire from Keith Wood had prevented the Canadian Engineers from building more than one bridge. Under constant fire, the Highlanders dashed across the canal and then the Agache River by making a plank bridge and the Companies spread out, taking different routes northwards between the canal and the main road. No 3 Company advanced just to the west of Keith Wood while No 2 Company remained closer to the canal and entered Marquion on its western side near the bridge destroyed by the Germans. A bitter struggle began for the streets with the German defenders fighting for every house. By 1330 hours, although Marquion had been taken, the attack was now behind schedule and the Highlanders were forced to continue on to Sauchy without artillery support. During the day the 15th Battalion captured 300 prisoners but at a cost of 153 casualties.

On 3 October 1918, the Commanding Officer returned and Girvan reverted to Second-in-Command and retained this position until the end of the Great War. Granted 14 days leave to U.K. on 17 October 1918, he returned from leave on 4 November and rejoined the 15th Battalion at Somain, in the last week of the war, though the battalion was now in reserve and saw no further action.

The Battalion participated in the March to the Rhine, following the 1st Canadian Division through the Ardennes. The march began on 19 November 1918, with the British 1st Army, a difficult march of 250 kilometres from the area of Mons. The Canadian 1st Division crossed the Rhine at Cologne on 13 December 1918, receiving the salute from General Plumer, who had been appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the British Army of Occupation. The 2nd Division crossed the Rhine at Bonn, also on 13 December 1918, receiving the salute of the Canadian Corps Commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie.

Girvan remained with the 48th Highlanders of Canada post war. He commanded the regiment from 1932 to 1936, and once again, as C.O. of the 2nd Home Battalion of the 48th Highlanders, in the Second World War. In 1940, he was appointed C.O. of the 1st Training Centre, at Camp Borden in England. Lastly, in 1943, he was promoted to Brigadier-General, and appointed to be Director of Military Training in Ottawa. In conclusion, for his Second World War service, he was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

As a civilian, Girvan returned to his employment in 1919, with the position of principle clerk. In 1927 he was Head Postal Clerk, and in 1932 he was Superintendent of Mails. In 1936 he was Assistant Postal Director, becoming Postmaster in 1947, and retired in 1948.
John Pollands Girvan died on 29 May 1961, in his 74th year at his Wildwood Lodge home in Georgetown, Ontario, where he is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. His wife died the following year.

Sold with silver 48th Highlanders of Canada glengarry badge, Birmingham hallmarks for 1918 by ‘B & P’, a pair of large brass collar badges, and two Second War Brigadier-General’s cloth rank epaulettes, together with a good quantity of original documents, including Warrant of C.B.E.; Warrant and book of Statutes for D.S.O.. M.I.D. Certificate; award certificate for Jubilee 1935; 1918 ‘ceasefire’ signal message; copy of Senior Officers’ School confidential report, September 1918; several immediate post-war letters including one form April 1920 signed by General Currie to ‘My dear Girvan’, concerning the reorganization of the Militia and his opinion that ‘as the 15th Battalion wore throughout the war the words “48th Highlanders” on the sleeve of their jackets... to me it is not right that a Battalion which fought throughout the war as the 15th did, should become the Reserve Battalion of any Militia Unit.’; five news cuttings relating to his retirement, award of C.B.E., and death; edition of The Civilian, April 1919, with front page report on Major Girvan; and studio portraits of Girvan and his wife, another photo of Girvan in full highlander uniform wearing medals and two others marching on parade.

For the recipient’s wife’s medals and her related miniature awards, see Lots 103 and 552..

For the recipient’s related miniature awards, see Lot 551.